{rice, beans & love}

Hmm. The words I found this week have been so good to me. I hope they work in you like they did in me.

Isiah 58:6-11 reads:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

you will cry for help, and he will say:

Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will be like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in the sun-scortched land

and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden

like a spring whose waters never fail.”

(emphasis mine)

HIS heart is for the poor –

we must work for the poor –

love the poor –

fight for justice  –

spend ourselves on behalf of the poor –

and then –

HE will guide us –

fulfill our needs –

sanctify us –

make us into a well-watered garden.

The cultivation is finished, may a harvest now be reaped.

This is where life is found.

The end.